Taylor Swift to Co-star with Our Greatest Living Actress Meryl Streep—Naturally?—in The Giver

Despite her limited acting résumé, songstress extraordinaire Taylor Swifthas been cast alongside Our Greatest Living Actress Meryl Streep in the Weinstein Company’s upcoming adaptation of The Giver, the 1993 dystopian young-adult novel. The film is set to star Brenton Thwaites—a one-time rumored Swift love interest!—as a boy chosen for life service as the Receiver of Memories, and Jeff Bridges, as the title character, who teaches the boy to use his sensory gifts. Streep will throw her dramatic weight behind the character of Chief Elder, who assigns tasks to the young. Although not much is known about Swift’s audition process or supporting character,*Us Weekly*notes that the singer was seen interacting with both Weinstein and Thwaites at a Toronto Film Festival party, during which Weinstein casually told the actors, “See you in South Africa.” (Presumably thinking that this was a totally normal farewell for a major studio head to give Taylor Swift, Us Weekly did not report the exchange until today.) Regardless of your thoughts on Swift’s acting ability (refer to Valentine’s Day or her New Girl cameo last season), this casting development is likely thrilling to middle-school English teachers, who will have a slightly less difficult task of getting students to read the now Taylor Swift–endorsed novel.

In other somewhat terrifying Meryl Streep–related news, Disney has released the first image of Meryl Streep in full witch garb from Into the Woods. (It looks as though Streep sat down in hair and makeup and said, “Give me the Helena Bonham Carter.”) An adaptation of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s musical, the film stars Streep as she attempts to instill important lessons in popular characters from children’s stories, including Little Red Riding Hood (Lilla Crawford), Cinderella (Anna Kendrick), and Rapunzel (Mackenzie Mauzy). Johnny Depp co-stars as the Wolf in the fantasy feature, which is due for release in December 2014.